I am sitting in my lovely room in the home of my host family. It is in a nice section of the downtown area of my city. I like my family. They are a mother in her '50's, her son, who is 21 and in the army and my host mother's mother, my nana, who is 84. However at this moment, my nana has gone wild. She is flinging herself against the locked door of my room while she screams at me in Azeri. (She can also scream in Russian).
I am worried, because my nana has bad eyes and high blood pressure. I don't want her to hurt herself.
It all started when I wanted to shower. In the winter, it is not at all certain that a shower is available. It depends on if the water pipes are frozen. I asked her if it was possible to take a shower. She took me to the bathroom and began pointing to all kinds of hardward and pipes and going into a long explanation, none of which I understood. I told her that it was fine if I could not shower, just let me know yes or no. She started over angrily with her unintelligible explanation. I asked the yes or no question again. Finally I said fine and told her I did not need a shower. She was still angry.
Then I began working on some flip charts for work. She did not like the room I was using. I moved to another room. She followed me to say it was too cold in that room and I should wear a sweater. I was already wearing two sweaters and told her so. I let her feel the sweaters in case she could not see them. She still insisted that I put on another sweater.
I picked up my flip charts and went into my room to work on them. When I heard her approaching, I locked the door and told her that I needed to work alone. That is when she went crazy. She soon gave up and muttered on the other side of the door. She then called her daughter to report on the locked room. She was told to leave me alone.
Normally, nana and I get along fine. She has two basic topics-- food and why I don't eat enough of it and the mothers-in-law of her grandchildren, who are apparently all terrible.
I will not remain with this family as the mother is being posted to Baku for two months and they are moving nana to another relatives home for the duration. They told me I am welcome to come back in April, but I wonder about enforcing boundaries with a determined Azerbaijani nana.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Duh
The Language
Azeris speak Azerbaijani, a language that is mostly just spoken in Azerbaijan. It is similar to Turkish and I am told the Azeris can be understood by Turkish speakers. Most Azeris speak Azerbaijani, but not all can write it well as they may have studied Russian in school. Most Azerbaijani people speak Russian also as most study it in school.
To prepare us for our two years of serving the Azerbaijani people, we had language instruction 5-6 days a week for about 10 weeks and continue with our language study at site if we choose to. The training classes were wonderful, with great teachers and a lot of practice and different methods of teaching. My perception was that I would be speaking Azeri fairly fluently and understanding what people say to me. My perception was based on the fact that the instruction we received was good and totaled almost 450 hours, that I studied on my own every day and since arriving here 3 weeks ago have studied about 70 hours so far, some of it with a teacher who had taught Azeri to Peace Corps workers.
How wrong I was. Some of it, I am convinced, is that I apparently don't have a facility for languages and the other is that it is difficult to get to the place where one is fairly fluent and even harder to know what people are saying.
The Azeri language is different from English in that the words appear in a different order in a sentence. The verb is always last. Also, the words have endings on them that indicate possession and tense. So for example the sentence
I went to the store with my brother reads:
I store to my brother with went.
On the end of "brother" is an added ending that varies with the sentence. Some sentences will have words with up to three added endings, which are basically like conjugating a verb with each sentence. We don't use these endings in English, some of which indicate punctuation.
So sister is baci, but my sister is bacim, your sister is bacisi, my sister's is bacisinin. So if you forget the endings or mix them up, you sound really bad or confusing, especially if there are several words with different endings in the sentence.
I make regular mistakes like saying "I ate vegetables tomorrow" or "you went to the store" when I meant that I went. I also make serious mistakes like when I recounted a story about the US in which I was trying to say that I fed the puppy. What I really said was that I ate the puppy. My friend then asked me if I only recently became a vegetarian and was kind enough to explain what I said to her!
Also, I practice hundreds of words every few days that I have never used yet. I would hate to not be able to say a body part--like arm--if I needed to or a color--brown. But in my rudimentary conversations I don't use any of these words nor do I recognize if anyone is saying them to me. I find that my memory is a hindrance as it takes me a long time to remember and use a new word. Sometimes I start a sentence and forget the last part.
A typical conversation is that I say something that I have composed in my head and if possible checked a reference--like "I am not able to print this document." The answer I get is something that I don't recognize or understand. So my co-workers have learned that I can say one sentence to them, (usually a question) but they will have to find some other way to get the answer to me.
Some Peace Corps volunteers never learn to speak more than a rudimentary version of Azeri to get them through basic situations. They work with an English speaking counterpart or are just creative in the ways the express themselves. I am determined to speak the language at a higher level and study in different ways every day to accomplish it. However, the results are currently negligible.
I have gradually stepped up my studying as I realize I am not improving quickly. I also recruit local students who want to improve their English. I meet with them for an hour--for 30 minutes we speak Azeri, 30 minutes English. I talk with my family, study the PC materials, have two two-hour lessons a week, do the homework my teacher assigns and read on my own. I study an average of four hours a day, some of it at work.
Azeris speak Azerbaijani, a language that is mostly just spoken in Azerbaijan. It is similar to Turkish and I am told the Azeris can be understood by Turkish speakers. Most Azeris speak Azerbaijani, but not all can write it well as they may have studied Russian in school. Most Azerbaijani people speak Russian also as most study it in school.
To prepare us for our two years of serving the Azerbaijani people, we had language instruction 5-6 days a week for about 10 weeks and continue with our language study at site if we choose to. The training classes were wonderful, with great teachers and a lot of practice and different methods of teaching. My perception was that I would be speaking Azeri fairly fluently and understanding what people say to me. My perception was based on the fact that the instruction we received was good and totaled almost 450 hours, that I studied on my own every day and since arriving here 3 weeks ago have studied about 70 hours so far, some of it with a teacher who had taught Azeri to Peace Corps workers.
How wrong I was. Some of it, I am convinced, is that I apparently don't have a facility for languages and the other is that it is difficult to get to the place where one is fairly fluent and even harder to know what people are saying.
The Azeri language is different from English in that the words appear in a different order in a sentence. The verb is always last. Also, the words have endings on them that indicate possession and tense. So for example the sentence
I went to the store with my brother reads:
I store to my brother with went.
On the end of "brother" is an added ending that varies with the sentence. Some sentences will have words with up to three added endings, which are basically like conjugating a verb with each sentence. We don't use these endings in English, some of which indicate punctuation.
So sister is baci, but my sister is bacim, your sister is bacisi, my sister's is bacisinin. So if you forget the endings or mix them up, you sound really bad or confusing, especially if there are several words with different endings in the sentence.
I make regular mistakes like saying "I ate vegetables tomorrow" or "you went to the store" when I meant that I went. I also make serious mistakes like when I recounted a story about the US in which I was trying to say that I fed the puppy. What I really said was that I ate the puppy. My friend then asked me if I only recently became a vegetarian and was kind enough to explain what I said to her!
Also, I practice hundreds of words every few days that I have never used yet. I would hate to not be able to say a body part--like arm--if I needed to or a color--brown. But in my rudimentary conversations I don't use any of these words nor do I recognize if anyone is saying them to me. I find that my memory is a hindrance as it takes me a long time to remember and use a new word. Sometimes I start a sentence and forget the last part.
A typical conversation is that I say something that I have composed in my head and if possible checked a reference--like "I am not able to print this document." The answer I get is something that I don't recognize or understand. So my co-workers have learned that I can say one sentence to them, (usually a question) but they will have to find some other way to get the answer to me.
Some Peace Corps volunteers never learn to speak more than a rudimentary version of Azeri to get them through basic situations. They work with an English speaking counterpart or are just creative in the ways the express themselves. I am determined to speak the language at a higher level and study in different ways every day to accomplish it. However, the results are currently negligible.
I have gradually stepped up my studying as I realize I am not improving quickly. I also recruit local students who want to improve their English. I meet with them for an hour--for 30 minutes we speak Azeri, 30 minutes English. I talk with my family, study the PC materials, have two two-hour lessons a week, do the homework my teacher assigns and read on my own. I study an average of four hours a day, some of it at work.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Questions
Everyone is curious about what Azeri people are really like. If someone asked me what Americans are like, I would say they are all different. But we do have some things that are true for many of us. Some of these things are that we like to dress casually when we are away from work, it is acceptable to eat and drink in our cars, many people outside of urban centers have cars, married couples tend not to live with other relatives, we have many different religions.
So I will tell you a few things that are true for many Azeris, but not all. I have found these things true in the three large cities I have visited and lived in. My Azeri friends say they are true for many Azeris.
To Azeri people, there is apparently no nosy question. Age, marital status, income, how much any article you own cost to buy, why you do or do not have children, what is the reason for marital discord of anyone in your family--all of this seems to be in the public domain in Azerbaijan. At first, I thought they were just curious about Americans--but Azeris ask each other these questions too and expect answers. I am frequently asked if my teeth are real. A friend is asked if she is concerned about her weight.
When I show pictures of my children, they want to know how much Dave's salary is in the miltary, when he will marry, if he would marry an Azeri woman, how much his apartment costs per month and how much money he has saved.
For Kelly, they want to know why she is not married, how much her school costs, will she consider marrying an Azeri man, if she would marry their son, where does she live and why would I allow her to live there.
They ask in a friendly way and then everyone marvels at the answer and tells me all their personal business and that of their family. Most of it I don't understand, but I see patterns of mothers-in-law interfering in marriages, problems when men go to Russia to find employment (one statistic is that one in eight Azeri families has a breadwinner in Russia due to the shortage of jobs here), problems in finding a suitable marital partner for their children (the family assists in finding a proper partner) and pride in the educational accomplishments of their family members.
Young Azeris are rarely overweight. They tend to be quite slender. Women tend to put on weight as they age and men do too, although not as much. They rarely play sports, but eat smaller portions of food, do not usually eat between meals, drink a lot of tea and do not walk around drinking and eating things, nor do they snack on buses or in cars. It seems to me that drinking soda and fruit drinks instead of water is a big source of calories for Americans. Since Azeris drink tea, which has no calories and drink much less soda and calorie laden drinks than we do, they probably consume many fewer calories than we do in drinks. While they eat cheese and meat, the amount is much less than Americans eat.
Many Azeris speak Russian. It is taught in school as a track. In many Azeri schools, parents can choose for their children to study Azeri, Russian or English. Many parents choose Russian and the great majority of Azeris are bilingual in at least one other language. Many parents prrefer their children to learn Russian since it is likely to be used and understood by other Azeris and in case they would want to work there.
Most Azeris do not read for pleasure. As there are only 8 million people in the country, relatively few books are published in the Azeri language. Russian books exist, but books are considered expensive. Newspapers exist at a few newstands, but I have never seen an Azeri home with a newspaper inside and have never seen a Azeri person actually reading a newspaper. The habit of reading outside of school seems to be missing here. It may be different with wealthier Azeris, but I have not met any of them.
I was looking for a few books for young children so I could read them as part of my language training, but did not find any. I met a woman who is the head of the languages department at a university in my city. I asked her if there was a public library. She said she thought there was one, but she was not sure where it was located.
Overall, Azeri people I have met are very friendly and kind with good hearts. They share whatever they have with me and assume the best.
So I will tell you a few things that are true for many Azeris, but not all. I have found these things true in the three large cities I have visited and lived in. My Azeri friends say they are true for many Azeris.
To Azeri people, there is apparently no nosy question. Age, marital status, income, how much any article you own cost to buy, why you do or do not have children, what is the reason for marital discord of anyone in your family--all of this seems to be in the public domain in Azerbaijan. At first, I thought they were just curious about Americans--but Azeris ask each other these questions too and expect answers. I am frequently asked if my teeth are real. A friend is asked if she is concerned about her weight.
When I show pictures of my children, they want to know how much Dave's salary is in the miltary, when he will marry, if he would marry an Azeri woman, how much his apartment costs per month and how much money he has saved.
For Kelly, they want to know why she is not married, how much her school costs, will she consider marrying an Azeri man, if she would marry their son, where does she live and why would I allow her to live there.
They ask in a friendly way and then everyone marvels at the answer and tells me all their personal business and that of their family. Most of it I don't understand, but I see patterns of mothers-in-law interfering in marriages, problems when men go to Russia to find employment (one statistic is that one in eight Azeri families has a breadwinner in Russia due to the shortage of jobs here), problems in finding a suitable marital partner for their children (the family assists in finding a proper partner) and pride in the educational accomplishments of their family members.
Young Azeris are rarely overweight. They tend to be quite slender. Women tend to put on weight as they age and men do too, although not as much. They rarely play sports, but eat smaller portions of food, do not usually eat between meals, drink a lot of tea and do not walk around drinking and eating things, nor do they snack on buses or in cars. It seems to me that drinking soda and fruit drinks instead of water is a big source of calories for Americans. Since Azeris drink tea, which has no calories and drink much less soda and calorie laden drinks than we do, they probably consume many fewer calories than we do in drinks. While they eat cheese and meat, the amount is much less than Americans eat.
Many Azeris speak Russian. It is taught in school as a track. In many Azeri schools, parents can choose for their children to study Azeri, Russian or English. Many parents choose Russian and the great majority of Azeris are bilingual in at least one other language. Many parents prrefer their children to learn Russian since it is likely to be used and understood by other Azeris and in case they would want to work there.
Most Azeris do not read for pleasure. As there are only 8 million people in the country, relatively few books are published in the Azeri language. Russian books exist, but books are considered expensive. Newspapers exist at a few newstands, but I have never seen an Azeri home with a newspaper inside and have never seen a Azeri person actually reading a newspaper. The habit of reading outside of school seems to be missing here. It may be different with wealthier Azeris, but I have not met any of them.
I was looking for a few books for young children so I could read them as part of my language training, but did not find any. I met a woman who is the head of the languages department at a university in my city. I asked her if there was a public library. She said she thought there was one, but she was not sure where it was located.
Overall, Azeri people I have met are very friendly and kind with good hearts. They share whatever they have with me and assume the best.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Food, water and gas
Today started out with problems. It is Sunday, the day that we don't have any training classes. Normally I spend part of the day with my 14 year-old host sister, part studying language and another part at the internet cafe. I was the first one up and was relieved that we had our gas turned back on. Last week, someone came to the door and my host sister was told that the gas company needed payment then or the gas would be shut off.
We don't use the gas for heat (we don't have a furnace) but do use it for cooking and heating water for bucket baths. It was shut off for three days before my host mother took a day off work and paid the bill. During those days,we had no tea, which is a huge deal for Azerbaijanis. We ate cold food or asked neighbors to heat up our food.
Today, I surveyed the kitchen at 7:30 a.m. My host mother had been gone at work for about 2 hours. We had not had water since yesterday afternoon and the few dishes we have were used and in the sink. The water goes on about twice a day, sometimes in the middle of the night. That is when we wash dishes and open the valve to put water in the water heater. The water heater only heats a spout in the hamam, not the kitchen water. There is no bathroom (hamam) sink; we use plastic tubs on the floor.
I decided to heat some water in a kettle and wash a couple of dishes that way so I could have some tea and maybe cook an egg. We were out of matches to light the stove. There was no dish soap. I went to look for laundry soap as a substitute. We were out of that too. I grabbed some bread and went back to my room to study.
The day got much better when my host sister woke up, gave me one minat (about $1.20) and told me to go to the small store outside our apartment house to get matches, dish soap, a new sponge and a piece of steel wool to clean dishes. Her mom lets her have one minat at a time for emergencies. There was not enough for all of these items, so the storekeeper kindly removed some of the matches from the box to give me everthing that I needed and divided the dish soap into two containers and kept one. We then had tea.
I took several containers of trash to the dumpster. My family and most others nearby don't buy garbage bags. They use whatever they have around, including buckets. I took three buckets of trash down the street to the dumpsters. Cats congregate inside the dumpsters and the more agile cows sometimes take a look and graze in the dumpsters. My host uncle, who lives nearby, says the neighbors are surprised that the American takes out the trash.
A couple of hours later the water came on and we were able to wash the dishes. I survey what there is to eat later. One head of cabbage, some potatoes, a bucket of beef fat, one apple and a round loaf of bread. I boil some potatoes that we can fry later.
Reading this, you may be surprised to hear me say that I am happy with my family and that I feel they treat me well. That is because I am part of their family, not a guest and they spend time helping me and interacting with me even when it must be a chore. They are competitve with the other host families in our cluster of four and want my language skills to be the best. They also want me to learn about their culture and traditions. The include me when they visit other families and tolerate the things they find strange about me. Some of these things are liking to bathe more than once a week, not washing my hands after I wash the dishes, sometimes forgetting to wear slippers in the house (Azeris do not wear shoes in the house) and forgetting not to put things on the floor, like my book bag and an occasional book.
The more I visit other host families, people I meet in the neighborhood and in other cities, the more I realize that my family is just one family and I am frequently wrong when I try to generalize their way of life to all Azerbaijanis. My family lives in an apartment in a complex with livestock and very few amenities. The place we were invited to at Thanksgiving is a short distance away, but is a spacious single-family home with a large courtyard, turkeys and chickens, a pet dog, beautiful wood floors and moldings and many modern conveniences. The host mother stays home and cooks meals in a large well-appointed kitchen and spends a lot of time with her family.
My mother works almost every day from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. She eats no meals at our house. She is divorced and lives in her brother's apartment and spends time with her daughter infrequently.
I gave my family the can opener that my sister sent. It is a manual can opener that probably cost $5. I did this because I wanted to give them a gift and because they open their cans with a large knife. I didn't think this was a safe practice. My host sister thought it was a device for removing teeth. My host mother, who is a cook in a restaurant, had no idea what it is. I demonstrated it and they were amazed. They had the same look on their faces when I first popped out my contact lenses in front of them and when I use dental floss. I stopped wearing contacts because I was not sure about the water, even though I boil it and also it seemed extravagant to wear them when most people in my neighborhood don't have some necessities.
The fruits and vegetables here are absolutely wonderful. The markets are full of beautiful produce, very cheap as it is produced locally in Azerbaijan. My family.buys very little produce other than potatoes, cabbage and an occasional onion, so I look at it wistfully or occasionally buy a few pieces on the sly and eat it away from home. I also secrete a few pieces of fruit at a time in my book bag and give them to my host sister. Peace Corps trainees do not have much money to spend and are not supposed to use our own money here. My family's diet consists of a lot of bread, some really salty cheese, the potatoes I mentioned and some jam they put in their tea. Once or twice a week they have a small amount of mutton or chicken.
We don't use the gas for heat (we don't have a furnace) but do use it for cooking and heating water for bucket baths. It was shut off for three days before my host mother took a day off work and paid the bill. During those days,we had no tea, which is a huge deal for Azerbaijanis. We ate cold food or asked neighbors to heat up our food.
Today, I surveyed the kitchen at 7:30 a.m. My host mother had been gone at work for about 2 hours. We had not had water since yesterday afternoon and the few dishes we have were used and in the sink. The water goes on about twice a day, sometimes in the middle of the night. That is when we wash dishes and open the valve to put water in the water heater. The water heater only heats a spout in the hamam, not the kitchen water. There is no bathroom (hamam) sink; we use plastic tubs on the floor.
I decided to heat some water in a kettle and wash a couple of dishes that way so I could have some tea and maybe cook an egg. We were out of matches to light the stove. There was no dish soap. I went to look for laundry soap as a substitute. We were out of that too. I grabbed some bread and went back to my room to study.
The day got much better when my host sister woke up, gave me one minat (about $1.20) and told me to go to the small store outside our apartment house to get matches, dish soap, a new sponge and a piece of steel wool to clean dishes. Her mom lets her have one minat at a time for emergencies. There was not enough for all of these items, so the storekeeper kindly removed some of the matches from the box to give me everthing that I needed and divided the dish soap into two containers and kept one. We then had tea.
I took several containers of trash to the dumpster. My family and most others nearby don't buy garbage bags. They use whatever they have around, including buckets. I took three buckets of trash down the street to the dumpsters. Cats congregate inside the dumpsters and the more agile cows sometimes take a look and graze in the dumpsters. My host uncle, who lives nearby, says the neighbors are surprised that the American takes out the trash.
A couple of hours later the water came on and we were able to wash the dishes. I survey what there is to eat later. One head of cabbage, some potatoes, a bucket of beef fat, one apple and a round loaf of bread. I boil some potatoes that we can fry later.
Reading this, you may be surprised to hear me say that I am happy with my family and that I feel they treat me well. That is because I am part of their family, not a guest and they spend time helping me and interacting with me even when it must be a chore. They are competitve with the other host families in our cluster of four and want my language skills to be the best. They also want me to learn about their culture and traditions. The include me when they visit other families and tolerate the things they find strange about me. Some of these things are liking to bathe more than once a week, not washing my hands after I wash the dishes, sometimes forgetting to wear slippers in the house (Azeris do not wear shoes in the house) and forgetting not to put things on the floor, like my book bag and an occasional book.
The more I visit other host families, people I meet in the neighborhood and in other cities, the more I realize that my family is just one family and I am frequently wrong when I try to generalize their way of life to all Azerbaijanis. My family lives in an apartment in a complex with livestock and very few amenities. The place we were invited to at Thanksgiving is a short distance away, but is a spacious single-family home with a large courtyard, turkeys and chickens, a pet dog, beautiful wood floors and moldings and many modern conveniences. The host mother stays home and cooks meals in a large well-appointed kitchen and spends a lot of time with her family.
My mother works almost every day from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. She eats no meals at our house. She is divorced and lives in her brother's apartment and spends time with her daughter infrequently.
I gave my family the can opener that my sister sent. It is a manual can opener that probably cost $5. I did this because I wanted to give them a gift and because they open their cans with a large knife. I didn't think this was a safe practice. My host sister thought it was a device for removing teeth. My host mother, who is a cook in a restaurant, had no idea what it is. I demonstrated it and they were amazed. They had the same look on their faces when I first popped out my contact lenses in front of them and when I use dental floss. I stopped wearing contacts because I was not sure about the water, even though I boil it and also it seemed extravagant to wear them when most people in my neighborhood don't have some necessities.
The fruits and vegetables here are absolutely wonderful. The markets are full of beautiful produce, very cheap as it is produced locally in Azerbaijan. My family.buys very little produce other than potatoes, cabbage and an occasional onion, so I look at it wistfully or occasionally buy a few pieces on the sly and eat it away from home. I also secrete a few pieces of fruit at a time in my book bag and give them to my host sister. Peace Corps trainees do not have much money to spend and are not supposed to use our own money here. My family's diet consists of a lot of bread, some really salty cheese, the potatoes I mentioned and some jam they put in their tea. Once or twice a week they have a small amount of mutton or chicken.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Flora
I recently met someone who was an adult in 1991, when the Soviet era ended in Azerbaijan and who speaks English well enough to give me details on a phenomenon I have noticed in Azerbaijan--that is that many people here feel that life was much better under the Soviets. Until now, I was not able to transcend the language barrier enough to get the details of why they think this. I recently met Flora who speaks passable English. She is about 50 years old and so lived a good portion of her adult life under the Soviets as well as under democracy. She has a good job, a nice home and a grown son and visited the US for the first time for a month in April as part of a professional conference. She is quite opinionated on a number of topics. Here is her opinion of the differences before and after 1991 when the Soviet Union fell:
"Everything was so good under the Soviet Union. There were 15 countries in the Soviet Union and we were all friends. We could travel freely among these countries and since we studied Russian in school, we had a common language. Azerbaijan had a big part in producing products and growing produce for these other areas, which made us prosperous. We felt we were surrounded by friends and people who had the same goals and desires as we did. If one region had a natural disaster or problem, others would help us and we felt secure, with plenty of food and a home for all. Regions with aggressive or dangerous ideas were restrained by the other regions.
The Soviet Union collapse was very unexpected for us. Overnight, all of these countries were expected to function independently and compete with each other. There was no government, no jobs, schools or any way to produce things. Everything was chaos. Now, we don't have a common language anymore, and we don't have the same goals."
I interjected that we had heard in the US that food was scarce in Soviet days, that collective farms were inefficient and there were long lines for shopping for food and consumer goods.
"No, you are wrong! We had plenty of food and it was cheap. We had good doctors and medical care. I have to have two jobs now to have a standard of living that is not as good as it was under the Soviets. I work my (professional job) from 9-5 five days a week and do other work from 8-9 a.m. and 6-8 p.m seven days a week. I am tired. I don't feel free now and I felt free with the Soviets."
I asked her what she thought about the US when she visited.
"I liked the people that I met. They were very friendly and smart and invited me to their homes. I liked the university that I stayed at. It was very beautiful with top quality facilities. The streets and buildings I saw were very high quality. I also liked visiting Washington, DC. It is a beautiful city.
I don't understand why a country that is supposed to be First World has homelessness. No one is Azerbaijan is homeless. Everyone has a home. Americans like to say they have the best things and democracy is wonderful. They also say they believe in God. How can people who have all these things and want to do God's work tolerate homelessness?"
I told her that I don't speak for all Americans, but that some feel that being homeless is the fault of the homeless and that if they try harder, they will be able to afford a place to stay. During this discussion, it came out that some children are homeless or live in cars or shelters. She was unaware of this and was appalled. I told her that another reason people tolerate homelessness is that they feel the problem is so big it can't be fixed and also that many homeless people suffer from mental illness and are hard to manage.
"Everything was so good under the Soviet Union. There were 15 countries in the Soviet Union and we were all friends. We could travel freely among these countries and since we studied Russian in school, we had a common language. Azerbaijan had a big part in producing products and growing produce for these other areas, which made us prosperous. We felt we were surrounded by friends and people who had the same goals and desires as we did. If one region had a natural disaster or problem, others would help us and we felt secure, with plenty of food and a home for all. Regions with aggressive or dangerous ideas were restrained by the other regions.
The Soviet Union collapse was very unexpected for us. Overnight, all of these countries were expected to function independently and compete with each other. There was no government, no jobs, schools or any way to produce things. Everything was chaos. Now, we don't have a common language anymore, and we don't have the same goals."
I interjected that we had heard in the US that food was scarce in Soviet days, that collective farms were inefficient and there were long lines for shopping for food and consumer goods.
"No, you are wrong! We had plenty of food and it was cheap. We had good doctors and medical care. I have to have two jobs now to have a standard of living that is not as good as it was under the Soviets. I work my (professional job) from 9-5 five days a week and do other work from 8-9 a.m. and 6-8 p.m seven days a week. I am tired. I don't feel free now and I felt free with the Soviets."
I asked her what she thought about the US when she visited.
"I liked the people that I met. They were very friendly and smart and invited me to their homes. I liked the university that I stayed at. It was very beautiful with top quality facilities. The streets and buildings I saw were very high quality. I also liked visiting Washington, DC. It is a beautiful city.
I don't understand why a country that is supposed to be First World has homelessness. No one is Azerbaijan is homeless. Everyone has a home. Americans like to say they have the best things and democracy is wonderful. They also say they believe in God. How can people who have all these things and want to do God's work tolerate homelessness?"
I told her that I don't speak for all Americans, but that some feel that being homeless is the fault of the homeless and that if they try harder, they will be able to afford a place to stay. During this discussion, it came out that some children are homeless or live in cars or shelters. She was unaware of this and was appalled. I told her that another reason people tolerate homelessness is that they feel the problem is so big it can't be fixed and also that many homeless people suffer from mental illness and are hard to manage.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
New Community, End of Training Nears
For three days I visited the city I have been assigned to live and work in for the next two years. It is about 200 miles from the capital of Baku, where the Peace Corps office is located, a train ride of about 7 hours. After traveling to Baku from my training village, I took a night train to my new community. My "seat" on the train was the bottom bunk in a tiny room with two bunk beds. The other beds were occupied by a woman about my age and two of her male relatives. They all snored.
On the way back to Baku, my compartment mates were a boy about 10 years old, his dad and another man. This custom of sharing night train compartments with beds in such close quarters with men seems strange to me in a Muslim country in which relationships between men and women are fairly limited. After saying hello to them and beginning to read in my top bunk, I noticed that they were taking pictures of me with their cell phones. After taking a few pictures, they asked me if I wanted to see the pictures. Instead, I decided to talk with them and show them pictures of my family and friends in the US, hoping they would see me as more of a human being than a curiosity. After that and some follow up questions, they stopped the picture taking and we all fell asleep.
My new host "mom" sent her male cousin to pick me up. I noticed at once that there is no livestock in the streets as I find in my current home. The city has a more prosperous look with nice parks, a new 10 story apartment building going up across the street and a nice hotel next to my apartment home. There are several institutions of higher learning here and my host mom works at one as the chair of the English Department.
In contrast to my home without running water at my training site, this one has hot and cold water, with a tank on the roof for times when public water is not forthcoming. My new home has laminate floors (Pergo) and a bathroom similar to one in the US except that there is no shower stall, but a spout coming out of the wall. It has a living and dining room and two bedrooms. It is a very lovely home.
My host family consists of my mom, her son, who is currently serving the required one year in the Azerbaijan military and grandma, who is currently in Baku visiting her son. My host mom is very welcoming and gracious. I am not sure where everyone will sleep except that according to the Peace Corps guidelines, I get one of the two bedrooms.
I will be living here beginning December 15 if I am sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer on December 10 as I hope to be. So far, in a very unusual situation, all 61 volunteers who started out are still here. Normally the dropout rate is around 10 percent. We are a good group, diverse age-wise. The youngest trainee is 22 and there are quite a few in their 20's. We have about 15 who are 50 or older which is considered a high number.
Our oldest volunteer will be 80 soon and served in the Peace Corps in Honduras in the '80's. She is very spirited and I am excited that she will be in the same city as me. She will work with youth.
In the smaller villages, some volunteers will be the only one in their area, but I will have 8 with me in this city. One of my trainee friends will work in a small town by herself. She lived on a farm in Nebraska and will work with an organization to help farmers find markets for organic produce so they can switch over if they want to.
All of us are assigned to a host organization to which we will devote part of our time. Mine is a micro finance institution. They help small businesses with loans of $50 to $50,000 and mainly serve the poor. My organization is worldwide and was begun in about ten years ago with funding from USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and is now on their own. These organizations loans have a very high repayment rate--many times over 99 percent as they are careful and there is much social pressure to repay loans.
The rest of the time, we will network in the community and fulfill the three goals of the Peace Corps:
1. To train the Azerbaijani people
2. To help Azerbaijanis to know more about Americans
3. To help Americans to know more about Azeris.
To do that we find secondary projects we are interested in and work on them with Azeris.
We don't do things for people or fix their problems; we facilitate people and communities fixing their own problems in a sustainable way--which means they will be able to keep the project going themselves once we are gone.
I recently visited a smallish museum of Azerbaijani antiquities in one of the regions. It had carpets, brass and gold items and tapestries. I had free reign in the museum and carried a large shoulder bag. The items were displayed openly with no glass surrounding them. I kept thinking that in the US, this museum would have been cleand out in a day or so.
Before I joined the Peace Corps, I had not had much contact with government agencies, but had heard there is widespread waste and corruption in government organizations. I also expected a lot of bureaucracy. To be fair, I know in corporate life, there is much mismanagment, corruption and waste also. However, from my point of view, the Peace Corps seems to operate very frugally and effectively. Our course of instruction is concise and effective with our time used to good advantage. The language instruction is very good and flexible according to our learning style.
The Peace Corps recycles things we use, like our sleeping bags and water filters, has modest offices and does not give us access to copy machines, computers, paper or office supplies other than a pad of paper and pen on the first day. Some prospective host families decline to host a PC volunteer because they don't feel they are given enough money to cover the cost of food and utilities.
On the way back to Baku, my compartment mates were a boy about 10 years old, his dad and another man. This custom of sharing night train compartments with beds in such close quarters with men seems strange to me in a Muslim country in which relationships between men and women are fairly limited. After saying hello to them and beginning to read in my top bunk, I noticed that they were taking pictures of me with their cell phones. After taking a few pictures, they asked me if I wanted to see the pictures. Instead, I decided to talk with them and show them pictures of my family and friends in the US, hoping they would see me as more of a human being than a curiosity. After that and some follow up questions, they stopped the picture taking and we all fell asleep.
My new host "mom" sent her male cousin to pick me up. I noticed at once that there is no livestock in the streets as I find in my current home. The city has a more prosperous look with nice parks, a new 10 story apartment building going up across the street and a nice hotel next to my apartment home. There are several institutions of higher learning here and my host mom works at one as the chair of the English Department.
In contrast to my home without running water at my training site, this one has hot and cold water, with a tank on the roof for times when public water is not forthcoming. My new home has laminate floors (Pergo) and a bathroom similar to one in the US except that there is no shower stall, but a spout coming out of the wall. It has a living and dining room and two bedrooms. It is a very lovely home.
My host family consists of my mom, her son, who is currently serving the required one year in the Azerbaijan military and grandma, who is currently in Baku visiting her son. My host mom is very welcoming and gracious. I am not sure where everyone will sleep except that according to the Peace Corps guidelines, I get one of the two bedrooms.
I will be living here beginning December 15 if I am sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer on December 10 as I hope to be. So far, in a very unusual situation, all 61 volunteers who started out are still here. Normally the dropout rate is around 10 percent. We are a good group, diverse age-wise. The youngest trainee is 22 and there are quite a few in their 20's. We have about 15 who are 50 or older which is considered a high number.
Our oldest volunteer will be 80 soon and served in the Peace Corps in Honduras in the '80's. She is very spirited and I am excited that she will be in the same city as me. She will work with youth.
In the smaller villages, some volunteers will be the only one in their area, but I will have 8 with me in this city. One of my trainee friends will work in a small town by herself. She lived on a farm in Nebraska and will work with an organization to help farmers find markets for organic produce so they can switch over if they want to.
All of us are assigned to a host organization to which we will devote part of our time. Mine is a micro finance institution. They help small businesses with loans of $50 to $50,000 and mainly serve the poor. My organization is worldwide and was begun in about ten years ago with funding from USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and is now on their own. These organizations loans have a very high repayment rate--many times over 99 percent as they are careful and there is much social pressure to repay loans.
The rest of the time, we will network in the community and fulfill the three goals of the Peace Corps:
1. To train the Azerbaijani people
2. To help Azerbaijanis to know more about Americans
3. To help Americans to know more about Azeris.
To do that we find secondary projects we are interested in and work on them with Azeris.
We don't do things for people or fix their problems; we facilitate people and communities fixing their own problems in a sustainable way--which means they will be able to keep the project going themselves once we are gone.
I recently visited a smallish museum of Azerbaijani antiquities in one of the regions. It had carpets, brass and gold items and tapestries. I had free reign in the museum and carried a large shoulder bag. The items were displayed openly with no glass surrounding them. I kept thinking that in the US, this museum would have been cleand out in a day or so.
Before I joined the Peace Corps, I had not had much contact with government agencies, but had heard there is widespread waste and corruption in government organizations. I also expected a lot of bureaucracy. To be fair, I know in corporate life, there is much mismanagment, corruption and waste also. However, from my point of view, the Peace Corps seems to operate very frugally and effectively. Our course of instruction is concise and effective with our time used to good advantage. The language instruction is very good and flexible according to our learning style.
The Peace Corps recycles things we use, like our sleeping bags and water filters, has modest offices and does not give us access to copy machines, computers, paper or office supplies other than a pad of paper and pen on the first day. Some prospective host families decline to host a PC volunteer because they don't feel they are given enough money to cover the cost of food and utilities.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
sheep etc.
I know what I want to be when I am done in the Peace Corps. I want to be a shepherd. Seriously. There are flocks of sheep all over my neighborhood, from about 10 sheep to about 30. The shepherds are either men or women who walk around part of the day with the sheep looking for grazing spots. The rest of the day, she sheep are resting in their outdoor enclosures, basically a small fenced area with a water trough and a partial roof. The shepherds mostly handle the sheep themselves although some have a dog.
There is a sheep enclosure right outside my classroom window. When the sheep are there, they look quite happy. Once in awhile, a couple of sheep will head butt each other but otherwise nothing seems to stress them out. We have some sheep cheese and milk in the markets here, but I also know that they are eaten in Azerbaijan. The wool is used to stuff mattresses too. It doesn't appear to be the kind of wool used ror clothing.
Walking around with a dog and a flock of sheep--what a great job! I watched a shepherd and a dog direct about 30 sheep across a major road last week. The drivers can be crazy, but the flock waited, then at a break in traffic, the shepherd and dog quickly directed the sheep across the road. Of the man, dog and sheep, no one looked worried.
When I think about the ways that Azerbaijan and the US differ, time is the major equation in many of the changes. Here are three of the ways that the passage of time is the factor:
Environmental and Safety issues--There are no mandated pollution controls or safety features in vehicles or consumer products that I know of. The air in areas with a lot of traffic just smells bad and sometimes my lungs just hurt. The mini buses that I take around town are mostly very old and in poor condition. The standard seat cover on these mini buses has a logo of "Titanic" on it. Apt description, but curious.
Gas water heaters, furnaces and stoves don't appear to have safety features either and are a true fire hazard. The Peace Corps has given us smoke and carbon monoxide detectors for our rooms. Trash bins are not common in my neighborhood and trash is strewn around the streets, beaches and the perimeters of apartment complexes, where dogs, cats, cattle and horses eat it. I walked around an open manhole cover recently on a crowded street. No one seemed concerned.
I remember the time in the late '60's when environmental controls and seat belts were added to autos and later when child safety seats were mandated. Most of the poplulation seemed to vociferously oppose them as government interference, too costly and not necessary. Also, I remember seeing the mass introduction of trash bins being criticized as too costly to pay for and maintain pickup. I remember the commercials in print and broadcast about "don't be a litter bug" as most people just threw trash on the ground as they walked around. And in the case of the open manhole cover, I remember people saying if people would just take responsibility for themselves, we wouldn't have to have the government responsible for our safety.
Manners and Conduct--Azeris are more formal than people in the US. Older people are shown respect in the way they are spoken with and treated. Homes are orderly and neat, with nothing on the floor. You must remove your shoes in the home and put on slippers, which are kept by the door. Clothing is neat and pressed and shoes are dressy and polished. Guests are treated in a very special way and always feel welcome. Children run around outside the school and act crazy there and between classes, but once in the classroom they are quiet, obedient and respectful. Male teachers wear a suit and tie and female teachers wear skirts and blouses or suits.
All this occurs in homes that may not have running water and eat a lot of potatoes and bread becaues they can't afford anything different.When trying to remember all the rules in Azeri homes, I finally came up with a guideline. I remember the way my grandmother expected me to act in 1960 and how she kept her home. By acting the way Grandma would want me to, I can stay out of trouble. Although I still miss running around the house in bare feet.
The Status of Women--Azerbaijanis have told us that Azerbaijan gave women the right to vote before the US did and Azeri women can change their names when they get married or not--no pressure either way, apparently. However, the status of women here is a few decades different than ours. Some of us took part in a showcase debate with young Azerbaijani college students on the status of women. We drew the pro side that women should have a more flexible role in society. The young people in the debate and some other Azeris I have spoken with use the same arguments that used to be heard (and in the case of Phyllis Schlafly and her Eagle Forum still are heard) in the US: Women should be protected, girls are not really interested in playing sports, why would women want to act like or look like men, the family will suffer, divorce will increase.
We are rapidly coming to the end of our training, December 10. We will then disperse to our permanent training sites. I will tell you more about that later. Trainng has been a wonderful experience with many very impressive and talented people (mostly Azeri, with some Americans) helping us become Peace Corps volunteers.
There is a sheep enclosure right outside my classroom window. When the sheep are there, they look quite happy. Once in awhile, a couple of sheep will head butt each other but otherwise nothing seems to stress them out. We have some sheep cheese and milk in the markets here, but I also know that they are eaten in Azerbaijan. The wool is used to stuff mattresses too. It doesn't appear to be the kind of wool used ror clothing.
Walking around with a dog and a flock of sheep--what a great job! I watched a shepherd and a dog direct about 30 sheep across a major road last week. The drivers can be crazy, but the flock waited, then at a break in traffic, the shepherd and dog quickly directed the sheep across the road. Of the man, dog and sheep, no one looked worried.
When I think about the ways that Azerbaijan and the US differ, time is the major equation in many of the changes. Here are three of the ways that the passage of time is the factor:
Environmental and Safety issues--There are no mandated pollution controls or safety features in vehicles or consumer products that I know of. The air in areas with a lot of traffic just smells bad and sometimes my lungs just hurt. The mini buses that I take around town are mostly very old and in poor condition. The standard seat cover on these mini buses has a logo of "Titanic" on it. Apt description, but curious.
Gas water heaters, furnaces and stoves don't appear to have safety features either and are a true fire hazard. The Peace Corps has given us smoke and carbon monoxide detectors for our rooms. Trash bins are not common in my neighborhood and trash is strewn around the streets, beaches and the perimeters of apartment complexes, where dogs, cats, cattle and horses eat it. I walked around an open manhole cover recently on a crowded street. No one seemed concerned.
I remember the time in the late '60's when environmental controls and seat belts were added to autos and later when child safety seats were mandated. Most of the poplulation seemed to vociferously oppose them as government interference, too costly and not necessary. Also, I remember seeing the mass introduction of trash bins being criticized as too costly to pay for and maintain pickup. I remember the commercials in print and broadcast about "don't be a litter bug" as most people just threw trash on the ground as they walked around. And in the case of the open manhole cover, I remember people saying if people would just take responsibility for themselves, we wouldn't have to have the government responsible for our safety.
Manners and Conduct--Azeris are more formal than people in the US. Older people are shown respect in the way they are spoken with and treated. Homes are orderly and neat, with nothing on the floor. You must remove your shoes in the home and put on slippers, which are kept by the door. Clothing is neat and pressed and shoes are dressy and polished. Guests are treated in a very special way and always feel welcome. Children run around outside the school and act crazy there and between classes, but once in the classroom they are quiet, obedient and respectful. Male teachers wear a suit and tie and female teachers wear skirts and blouses or suits.
All this occurs in homes that may not have running water and eat a lot of potatoes and bread becaues they can't afford anything different.When trying to remember all the rules in Azeri homes, I finally came up with a guideline. I remember the way my grandmother expected me to act in 1960 and how she kept her home. By acting the way Grandma would want me to, I can stay out of trouble. Although I still miss running around the house in bare feet.
The Status of Women--Azerbaijanis have told us that Azerbaijan gave women the right to vote before the US did and Azeri women can change their names when they get married or not--no pressure either way, apparently. However, the status of women here is a few decades different than ours. Some of us took part in a showcase debate with young Azerbaijani college students on the status of women. We drew the pro side that women should have a more flexible role in society. The young people in the debate and some other Azeris I have spoken with use the same arguments that used to be heard (and in the case of Phyllis Schlafly and her Eagle Forum still are heard) in the US: Women should be protected, girls are not really interested in playing sports, why would women want to act like or look like men, the family will suffer, divorce will increase.
We are rapidly coming to the end of our training, December 10. We will then disperse to our permanent training sites. I will tell you more about that later. Trainng has been a wonderful experience with many very impressive and talented people (mostly Azeri, with some Americans) helping us become Peace Corps volunteers.
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